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Preacher: Ross Macdonald Scripture: Genesis 14:1-24
Well as we move forward in Genesis, we're beginning chapter 14 this morning. We are actually going to go from the beginning to the end. However, we won't cover everything within Genesis chapter 14. We're gonna save verses 18 through 20 for next week.
I Can imagine the disappointment everyone perhaps is dying to know who Melchizedek is. And I look forward to having the whole time to discuss his his place and his importance not only in Genesis But throughout the rest of Scripture, and so we'll do that next week and hopefully we'll set the stage to do that.
This morning and so this morning We're looking at chapter 14 and we're reminded of where we just were in chapter 13 of Genesis. Remember how in chapter 12 Abram had gone down to Egypt because of the famine and of course he lied about his wife and really threatened her and also threatened the promise of God that he would be the heir of the promised land and through him the promised seed would come the seed that would deliver the people of God and Of course God delivered Abram out of Egypt.
And as he came back, he came back with many possessions. And so the conflict arose between the herdsmen of Lot and the herdsmen of Abram and Abram sent Lot away and Lot went toward Sodom and pitched his tent in the valley of the Dead Sea.
And then we remember that Abram in chapter 13 he He stayed on he called upon the name of the Lord. He built an altar dwelt by the Terrapins of Mamre Walking with the Lord and that's where we left him in chapter 13.
As we said last week Abram was looking.
Walking.
Worshiping. But meanwhile as we begin chapter 14 not far from him. The whole world is getting turned upside down. War is breaking out rumors of wars are flooding the land. And so we read in verse 1 it came to pass in the days of Amraphel king of Shinar Ariok king of Elisar.
Keter lay Omer. I loved hearing our brother pronounced that name. What a name. Keter lay Omer king of Elam and tittle king of nations. That they made war with Baruch king of Sodom Bersha king of Gomorrah Sheenab king of Adma Shem a bird king of Zeboiim and the king of Bella that is Zohar all these joined together in the valley of Sidim.
That is the Salt Sea. Twelve years they served. Keter lay Omer in the thirteenth year. They rebelled so we have these four kings. Listed initially four kings the king of Shinar Elisar Elam and the king of nations.
More likely we should understand that the king of Goyim. Goyim is the Hebrew word for peoples or nations and so that's how the translators went with it. But most likely he's not the king of all peoples or the king of multiple nations.
He's the king of a place called Goyim and that is a place that Joshua references later. I think it's Joshua 24. And so we have these kings we do know things about them from history. John Currid points out that these are foreign rulers and they're coming from the east and from the northeast of the promised land of Canaan and the first king we read about Amraphel.
He rules the land of Shinar. We read about Shinar in Genesis 10 and this is the area of Sumer the Sumerians and their great Empire their great cities and so we know of this king Amraphel. We also know of the king of Elisar.
Perhaps this is related to the land of Assyria. It's very close to Laser and Asser and so this is most likely what becomes a Syria later in Scripture. We know of the man the king named the king of Ariok.
We know him of Ariok. We know him from Mari documents we know of Keterleomer who really is the chief king as we'll go on to see and Most likely he's an Elamite his name translates to slave of Lagomer which was an Elamite God.
And so he's this king this servant of this false God and he would have been right at the southeast corner of Assyria. So these are the four kings these foreign rulers from the east and northeast of Canaan.
Now in terms of the Genesis narrative. Remember, we're making our way through Genesis keeping the big picture in view in chapter 14. We have the first mention of war. This is the first time war is mentioned in Scripture.
That doesn't mean it's the first time war happened in Scripture. We can infer that wars happened between tribes and as kingdoms rose and as kingdoms fell that there was war. But this is the first description we have of war.
So there's been bloodshed. Going all the way back to Cain's murder of Abel. We have tyranny going all the way back to Lamech perhaps the height of tyranny and we see. Therefore the spread of sin the curse of sin continuing and part of that curse is this bloodshed this violence this devastation of war.
These four kings these foreign powers have gathered together to make war against five kings. We have Bera the king of Sodom Bersha the king of Gomorrah. Sheenab the king of Adma. Shemaber the king of Zeboim and then a man who's not named but he's called the king of Bela which is Zoar in Verse 3 all of these these five kings have joined together by the salt sea.
What is the Dead Sea? And in verse 4 we find out why they've joined together. These five kings have joined together and begun this sort of world war. Because for 12 years they served Keter Laomer and in the 13th year they rebelled.
Now the word served here means they were subject to him. They didn't serve him on friendly terms. They were subject to him. What we have in other words are these five kings as client Kings. They were clients under the patronage of this tyrant Keter Laomer.
Now there's some technical terms here that we should understand. When you have a king that rules over client Kings you have what we call a suzerain a.
Suzerain.
Su zer a I n a suzerain and their client the one that they have power over is called the vassal. And so you have suzerains and you have vassals the suzerain has all the power all of the Resources and he can decide whether I'm gonna take over your land and make it my own or whether I'm just gonna make you subject To me and you're gonna have to pay me tribute.
And if I want to launch a campaign you have to give me troops and you have to give me supplies. And this is how it works. This is what a suzerain does now. This is very important not just to understand Genesis 14, but to understand most of the covenants God makes throughout the Old Testament.
Because when God makes a covenant he makes it as a suzerain. There's a great a great work. It's very hard to find out of print by the late scholar Meredith Klein Called the Treaty of the Great King and he he draws all of this out now perhaps the idea of suzerains and vassals seems all too foreign to you and So to break it down.
I was reminded of a cartoon a kids movie. I saw not too long ago. In fact called a bug's life. Now if you've seen a bug's life You'll know that all of the little animated ants have to gather all the food together and they bring it to this place on the So that the mighty grasshoppers can come down and and take this food.
And so to put it in the terms of the suzerain in the vassal the grasshoppers are these mighty suzerains these mighty rulers and The client Kings the vassals they're like the ants and they're gathering all their resources and they're they're really putting themselves In harm's way, and they're maybe not going to make it past the harvest but they have to pay the tribute because it's better than warfare and so the ants gather all the food and the Grasshoppers come and swoop it all up a bug's life is a great presentation of what's going on in Genesis 14 if the vassal was to become Threatened or if another power invaded the vassal kingdom then the suzerain the mighty army.
It would come it would defend its interests, but that's about it as far as benefits go. That's really the only benefit. It's pretty lopsided. It's pretty one-sided and so for that very reason it was such a raw deal that almost always throughout human history.
You had these vassals that became William Wallace's Bravehearts they wanted to overthrow the yoke overthrow the tribute. We're not going to let them rule over our land and take our women and children and take the resources that we work for.
We're going to rebel we're going to fight we find that not only here in Genesis 14. But all the way through human history all the way through every Empire the Roman Empire the empires of the Normans or the English or what have you and So verse 4 shows us this very rebellion.
They paid tribute for 12 years. They gave their sons and their daughters and their supplies and their harvests over for 12 years. They served these four.
Kings.
They paid tribute to Kettle a omer. Specifically who must have been over even the other three kings. But then the 13th year comes and on the 13th year the tribute doesn't make it to Kettle a omer on The 13th year they rebelled and when you make that decision to not give tribute There's only one thing that's coming and that is war.
To not pay tribute is to say come invade and come attack me and let's try to settle this out. And so the whole land in that 13th year is preparing and bracing for war. Because if kettle a omer shows weakness here, then he'll be weak in everyone's eyes.
Everyone will rebel against him. Every subject power will rebel against him. War is coming one way or another. So here's Abram. He's in the land of promise. He's just trying to raise his family Sarai and and now lots gone, but all the servants in his house.
Oh.
He's trying to walk with the Lord and and walk in the promise and he's calling upon the name of the Lord and meanwhile war is Boiling over all around him. We see for instance the same idea of this of This terror of this torment of this vassal relationship throughout Israel's history.
I'll give you an example in 2nd Kings 18. We read of the king Hezekiah Who overthrew the high places and broke down the idols and restored the worship of God. And Hezekiah and 2nd Kings 18 decides that he's gonna rebel against the king of Assyria.
We read in 2nd Kings 18 verse 7. The Lord was with him. He prospered wherever he went. He's doing pretty well and what happens. William Wallace, this is what happens when you're a vassal, right? He rebelled against the king of Assyria.
He would not serve him just like the band of the five kings rebelled against their suzerain. Kader Leomer and. Just like these five kings as we'll see the rebellion did not go well. 2nd Kings 18 beginning in verse 13 in the 14th year of King Hezekiah Sennacherib king of Assyria came up against all the fortified cities of Judah and took them.
Then Hezekiah king of Judah sent to the king of Assyria at Lachish saying I've done wrong. Turn away from me. Whatever you impose on me I will pay. So he had already been paying tribute. The 14th year comes and he's attacked because he rebelled.
He stops paying tribute now. What happens now. The king of Assyria comes and he says I'll pay whatever you want now. Do you think it's gonna go back to just the way the tribute was? The king of Assyria assessed Hezekiah king of Judah 300 talents of silver.
30 talents of gold. This is beginning to get severe. Look at Hezekiah gave him all the silver that was found in the house of the Lord all the treasures of the king's house at that time. Hezekiah stripped the gold from the doors of the temple of the Lord and from the pillars which Hezekiah had Overlaid and he gave it all to the king of Assyria.
You see. This is what happens when a vassal rebels against a suzerain. So we come back to Genesis 14. Same time frame in the 14th year that war comes. I don't know what it is about that number 14. I wonder.
We're all a vassal to someone right? Have you changed jobs around that 12 13 14 year mark? Maybe you understand something of human psychology there. You know, we've done this long enough. It's time for a change.
In the 14th year The Kings come down they invade the vassal kingdoms. We have this list of names beginning in verse 5 and following. They attack the Ref I am and asteroth karni. I'm the zoo Zeman ham the emmy men shalva Kyria theme the Horites in the mountain of seer as far as El Paran which is by the wilderness.
They turned back and came to end mishpat. That is Kadesh and attacked all the country of the Amalekites and also the Emirates who dwelt in Hazzaz on Tamar. Now I'm reading this list and your eyes are maybe spinning.
This means nothing to us but if I were to go back and put United States as Place names and say they they went down through Tennessee and as far down as Alabama. They they came back up toward Georgia and withstood them even at the Ozarks.
All of a sudden you're perking up. Oh, I'm tracking that. That's how an ancient mind would have understood this. These places are recognizable. This warfare is spread out. You get a sense of just how chaotic this would have been and how widespread the battles were.
So the the four kings come down the Jordan Valley. They go toward the desert then they turn back up along the Jordan Valley toward the Dead Sea. The whole region is in uproar. They've done this sort of swoop maneuver to close in all of the rebellious forces and you have to picture What's happening as a result of this all of the villages along the way would have been completely torn apart.
Burnt to the ground it would have been a scene of devastation. Families fleeing to the hills or wherever they could hide. But where can you go that you won't be hunted down or at least pushed into combat to defend your life and the lives of your People.
Armies pouring in chaos pillaging raping cities under siege starvation. They used to hurl. The Romans used to hurl diseased bodies into the cities. They sieged. They would try to starve you out and and kill you by disease and plague.
This is ancient warfare. And then finally we come to verses 8 and 9 and there's this showdown this showdown of the four kings and their armies. Against the five vassal kings and their armies. For as we read for kings against five.
For you Tolkien fans, this is the original battle of the five armies. And we have absolutely no description of the tactics. No description of the maneuvers. We just have the outcome. Verse 10. The valley of sit-in was full of asphalt pits.
The kings of Sodom and Gomorrah fled. Some fell there the remainder fled to the mountains. That was the outcome. The vassal kings lose. They flee. Some of them are pursued into the tar pits. Maybe they jump into those bubbling pits rather than be run through with swords and spears.
This was a total victory.
For the suzerains and. As Americans we hate that because we always want the underdog to win. We want that 1980 u .s. Hockey team to win, but. No, the four kings won. It was a complete victory and as we know to the victor the spoils and.
So verses 11 and 12, they took all the goods of Sodom and Gomorrah all their provisions and went their way. But then the whole point of recounting these verses comes to a head in verse 12. They also took lot.
We would not have chapter 14's information if it weren't for verse 12. They took lot Abram's brother's son the son of Haran. Who dwelt in Sodom and his goods and departed perhaps? Perhaps lot moved into Sodom as the war and the rumors of war began to press near it was time to close up shop.
It was time to go into the refuge of a city and so lot. Notice what the text says lot and all of his goods. Remember how his heart was drawn to all the provisions of Egypt and even when he had to choose a land He chose that which seems so promising of provision.
Well here all those provisions. He made his life about are carted away. They're no longer his they're now plunder. Lot pitched his tent towards Sodom. He ended up in Sodom and now he's being taken away a captive of war.
Lot is now on his way to become a slave to these bloodthirsty men. Maybe not even a slave. Maybe he'll be killed very often. Some of the captured men they were they were pushed into servitude. Others were just killed.
They would have these big festivals and parades and they would just maybe kill half the men. They would sacrifice them to their gods. That might be lots outcome. But then we come to verse 13 and we have this great picture of deliverance.
By the providential hand of God one escapes from the scene of carnage and comes and tells Abram the Hebrew. Now we have this word the Hebrew here and it's very bizarre Abram the Hebrew. We already know Abram.
Why would you say Hebrew here? We've been tracking the story. Abram has been front and center all along. Why say Abram the Hebrew here? Well, some argue most likely it's because this is a different account a separate account that Moses is using.
It's an outside source in other words. And I think that's a good case to make just like Luke when he wrote his gospel used many witnesses and many sources. Some of which were written down some of which were Testimonies, so the meaning of the word Hebrew here.
It's outsider language. Abram Who is a Hebrew and he's bringing this into his account. The word Hebrew means to cross over. It might have the connotation of a migrant or a refugee the one who crosses over.
But also we remember Genesis 11 and how Abram's ancestor was ever. Most likely Hebrews coming out of that line of ever and we're introduced to him. The one who had escaped came and told Abram the Hebrew.
For he dwelt by the terrible trees of Mamre the Amorite brother of Eshcol brother of Anna and they were allies with Abram. So we find Abram just where we left him in chapter 13. Pressing on in the promise of God there by the terrible trees of Mamre and in fact, he's made a treaty with these three brothers.
These three brothers are Amorites and they live in this area and Abram has somehow negotiated with them. They're native to this land. And even though Abram knows this land has been given to me by God's promise.
He he negotiates with them makes a treaty with them, but there might be peace between them. Now these brothers are Amorites. Amorites could be sort of an umbrella term. Seemed like peoples that weren't specifically assigned to an ethnicity.
We're just called Amorites at this point in history. But of course, we just read that some of the Amorites were taken up in the rebellion. It's interesting that moving forward God's law forbids the Israelites to make any treaties with the Amorites.
Here Abram makes a treaty with the Amorites. Moving forward God forbids this and the logic is they will turn your hearts away from me. You'll begin to worship and follow after their gods and their ways.
But here Abram's heart is pure and it's devoted to the Lord. And so he makes this treaty and he hears verse 14 that His nephew lot is taken captive. And so what does he do? He arms 318 of his servants who were born in his house.
And he goes in pursuit. I Always find that little detail striking.
I.
Remember one of the first times I actually read through Genesis that stood out to me because the whole time I was only picturing little old Abram. Little old Sarah his wife and then maybe lot and even lot leaves and they have maybe a few herdsmen.
Maybe I don't know half a dozen. How many herdsmen do you need? Well here just the men who are trained and able to fight number 318. That's just the men who are trained and able to fight. So Abram is dealing with a ton of people in his possession.
He has a massive amount of people enough to make a town. Abram has 318 men that he can gather and muster but none of these are born from him. They're simply born into his house. We'll see that in the next chapter chapter 15.
See now my heir is Eliezer the Damascene in other words. This is the closest thing I have to a son because I don't actually have a son. My wife is barren. These men had been gathered. Raised born into his house from her from Haran from Egypt.
It immobilizes them. This is like the ancient Near Eastern SWAT team. He comes together. He equips them. They put on their body armor they load up and they're ready to load out. This massive force and even though it's massive from our point of view It's not as massive as the forces that literally beat five kingdoms in a battle by the Dead Sea and that's who they're going after.
But they have the advantage of surprise they have the advantage of guerrilla warfare. Not only is this the first instance of war. This is the first instance of guerrilla warfare. And so verse 15 we read of this tactic.
He divides his forces against them by night. He and his servants attacked them. No details, but it was successful because he pursues them as far as the region of Damascus. She divides his forces by night which totally disorients the enemy.
You have no idea how many people you're fighting against and since it's divided. It seems like you're totally in Surrounded and you just need to retreat and run away and that's what happens. You can almost picture it if you were a Cinematographer and you were setting that scene you can picture these troops and the clinks of their spears and their swords.
Glimmering in the moonlight as they tread so quietly up the valley of the Jordan toward the Dead Sea. And then they see the smoke and the fire from afar. Here's the encampment. They can hear the rousing.
There's all these goods all around there's feasting. The soldiers must have been drunk. They must have camped there feeling invincible. We've defeated everything that was against us now. Look at all the plunder.
We're going back home rich. And so they let their guard down. Maybe many of the troops were in a drunken stupor. What a perfect time for an ambush sounds very familiar to American history, doesn't it the crossing of the Delaware?
And so Abram strikes. You can imagine lot there. Immediately prior maybe he was bound in ropes and there he is. His wife bound in ropes. His daughters may be being dragged off to the tents of the soldiers his sons.
Maybe some of them killed. And he's there just weeping. Thinking. What will become of my life. What will become of my family. What will happen to my daughters. Must have been filled with horror not just about what had happened.
But what would happen from here on out? In the middle of the night when he's feeling at the lowest ebb he's being dragged out of everything he knew. The cavalry arrives. You could almost hear the trumpets begin to shout.
Here comes Abram and his troops. You can imagine Lot trying to hide and all the the fury. He has no idea who it is. That's come and what the fighting is about. Maybe it was a counter-attack. Maybe it was a second assault from these five kingdoms.
He has no idea. You can imagine what it would have been like when he recognized Abram. Abram the Deliverer. Again, we have no details in the text. We don't read of that encounter. We don't even know what happened or or the maneuvers.
All we read is the result. Verse 16. He brought back all the goods and also brought back his brother lot and his goods as well as the women and the people. And so it was a complete success. Even though they were Remarkably outnumbered by this ambush by the night Abram is able to deliver a lot and all of the people that had been taken captive by Keter Leomer.
Abram is the Deliverer. Now keep in mind. When this is written by Moses, it's meant to instruct the Israelites. Even as we today receive further instruction from it. What would the Israelites be meant to understand from this record from this event?
They would have understood that no matter how small they are if they have the faith of Abram They will overcome the greatest odds against them to follow God and faith even against forces 10 20 30 times their might will have success and so we learn from that as Believers that we stand by faith in a fallen world.
It does not look like the strong man is bound. But scripture tells us the strong man is bound and we are to plunder his kingdom his fallen kingdom. Because the head of the serpent has been crushed decisively at Calvary.
And so this account is all about Abram's faith and the life of faith that equips us for battles. David says He equips my hands for war. The decisive moment Had not yet come in Abram's life. He was looking forward to the day John 8 56 Abraham saw my day Jesus said and he was glad we look back to the day of Jesus as believers and we understand that that was the decisive victory and All that's left now is a mop-up operation.
This was the great insight a few generations ago of Oscar Coleman who said there's a sense in which the victory has already been won and There's a not yet. To it being fully realized the victory has been won.
The most decisive battle has been successful and yet here we are still in a fallen world. Still dealing with sins in our lives seeing brokenness in our homes and all around us and we say Was the battle one is God's salvation.
Sure. It doesn't always look like it. And the way that Oscar Coleman approached it. He says you have to understand something about the way battles work. Military historians can look back and they can say this was the decisive battle.
The rest of the war was simply a mop-up. It was a foregone conclusion. And he is the example of D-Day June 6th 1944 the biggest land and sea and air assault ever conducted in human history when the Allies stormed the beachhead of Normandy to begin to take over the territory that was Domineered by Germany and this was the decisive encounter.
This was as it were the Battle of the five armies Rommel or when Rommel had built this seawall made it as impregnable as possible to overcome and on June 6 1944 The Allied Nations held their breath as they sent wave after wave after wave of their brave sons to get slaughtered on the beachhead and hopefully gain a foothold.
And when that day was over when that operation operation overlord was successful. It was a foregone conclusion. Now it was just a matter of time Germany could not recover from that kind of loss. Now all of the force of our economy and all the resources of the Allies was being pushed through that beachhead.
And it was an unstoppable force. It was impossible. It was just a matter of how long Germany could delay but the delay was there the Battle of the Bulge Toward the very end as the Russians and the Allies the British and the Americans pressed toward Berlin.
They were even putting young boys and old men into service giving them rifles and in grenades.
That's how desperate they were.
But it was a foregone conclusion. No one in their right mind thought. Anything less than the absolute victory of the Allied forces and that's what it is like with Jesus Christ. The cross was the decisive victory.
It's a foregone conclusion. The serpent has been crushed. But now there is this mop-up operation and it's just a matter of time. And sometimes that that coiling writhing wounded serpent seems to get the upper hand.
He seems to have this power of blindness over the people of Japan ever since the Boxer Rebellion. Or he he seems to be able to suppress the faith of the Christians in North Korea or he seems to be able to delude through a false gospel of Health and wealth and prosperity people in the sub-saharan countries of Africa, but it's a foregone conclusion.
Christ reigns crisis victorious. He has overcome the world was the testimony of the earliest Christians. Even when Caesar was boasting and crushing and persecuting Christians. They said Jesus is Lord.
Caesar is not when they were being torn apart by beasts in the arenas. So, how can we talk about spiritual warfare? Without recognizing that the greatest battle has been won and all of our warfare is a mop-up operation.
It's a foregone conclusion. It's just bringing to our eyes. Bringing to the history of the world. The truth and the reality of that decisive event at the cross. Abram in that sense is a foreshadowing of Christ the Deliverer.
Abram is almost a type of Christ being the deliverer of his people in bondage. Abram is the servant of the Lord walking in obedience to the Lord. Willing when he gathers his 318 men and leads them willing to lay down his own life for his people who are in bondage.
Abram becomes this type of Christ. Christ who is the seed of Abraham? Finds a people that are held in captivity and he's willing to lay down his own life to free them from their bondage. And so he defeats our adversary.
He lays down his own life upon the cross so that in him we might be more than conquerors. That's deliverance and that deliverance leads us to witness and. This is what really strikes me as we look at verse 17 and then 21 and following.
There's this interlude in verses 18 through 20, isn't there? It just comes out of nowhere. It doesn't even fit the narrative look at verse 17. The king of Sodom remember the defeated king of Sodom. The king of Sodom went out to meet him at the Valley of Shava.
That is the Kings Valley. After his return from the defeat of Keter Lomer and the kings who were with him. So verse 17 is setting us up. All right, the king of Sodom is going to meet Abram. We're expecting everything to follow now.
They're gonna interact and have this conversation all of a sudden verse 18 through 20 comes out of nowhere. Melchizedek cuts off the king of Sodom and there's this whole interaction between Abram and Melchizedek, which we're not gonna touch this morning.
We'll get there next week.
But then we go where we thought we were gonna go in verse 17. Verse 21. Now the king of Sodom said to Abram. It's like where did verses 18 through 20 come from? Look at what the king of Sodom says. Give me the people take the goods for yourself.
This was a king who earlier had been running into the hills fleeing for his life. His soldiers all around him getting cut down. Hobbling into tar pits a coward a defeated enemy. And look at him now. Give me the people.
Take the goods for yourself. There's no entreaty here. There's no request. There's no. Thank you. I've gotten offended for waiting that extra 10 seconds to hold the door for someone and they walk through like the Prince of you know Persia.
They don't say thank you. It's like oh, I wish I'd go back in time and not open the door. That's not very Christian this king. Literally was on his way to be taken captive. Maybe have his eyes gouged out.
Maybe be killed and probably the greatest ritual sacrifice that a successful army could give. He had his whole kingdom all of his people and all of his goods plundered. Now he comes before everyone. He says give me back the people you can keep the goods.
Who excuse me? Who are you?
Abram of course is by right the possessor of both and Reading the king of Sodom's request. He's almost saying Okay, I know you deserve everything you can have the goods. Just give me the people back. You know over time I can tax them enough.
I'll rebuild my possession. Abram is loaded with all the goods of the plunder to the victor. The spoils and yet in this very moment notice. There's this time of trying this time of temptation. We're gonna see this again and again in In the life of Abram in the life of his sons that in that moment when you have some great victory some great season of Fruit in the Lord usefulness for the Lord.
I'm really walking with him. I'm really sensing his presence in my life his his power. There are these things that used to hold me in bondage and he's just freed me from them. And and oh, I just want to keep pressing on I.
I'm so grateful for his deliverance and his power. And I'm so drawn close to him and it's at those very moments that you can expect temptation to rise its ugly head. We see that here Abram is being tried.
Give me the people take all these goods for yourself. How tempting this offer must have been to Abram. It was his by right.
To the victor the spoils I.
Fought I put my skin on the line. If I won I get all. Winner takes all. He confirms that because he says these three brothers that fought with me. Give them their spoil give them their share divided among them.
This is right. This is what's just to do. This is what's accepted by by all and maybe Abram could have even reasoned a little bit further. You know what this is poetic justice. Lot pitched his tent towards Sodom because he wanted more of the world more security more goods and I didn't.
I Stayed in the land that was still being scarred by famine. I Just dwelt where God had promised me fruition, even though I could not see it with my eyes. This is poetic justice. No wonder now lots possessions become mine.
This is how God's going to bless me. This is his reward for my obedience. But Abram doesn't think like that at all. Temptation becomes a gateway for witness. That is always true brothers and sisters that is always true.
Temptation is a gateway for witness whether that's a good witness or a bad witness. How you respond to trial and temptation in your life? Gives you the opportunity whether you like it or not to be a witness and you'll either be a witness for the Lord as you withstand and persevere or you'll be a witness against the Lord as You cave in and compromise.
Abram is uniquely aware of that. Not only from the exchange he's had with Melchizedek but from the whole context of Genesis chapter 12 in Egypt and and look at all the Devastation that came out of accepting all of the goods from Pharaoh.
Abram is not gonna make that mistake again. He had left Egypt behind and that allure of the world that caused so much scorn in his life. He left that behind that would have been like Judas's silver to him a reminder of his doubt and his his faithlessness.
So he comes back to the promised land and he calls on the name of the Lord and and he's walking in peace. But peace is not walking with him. The world is going to hell in a handbasket war is bubbling over all around him.
And he has to go and actually pull his nephew out of that fire. What's going to happen to him now? If he takes all that plunder. And he brings it back with him just as he did from Egypt. Is he gonna be vain?
Is he gonna trust in the power of his might his cunning?
Devise this and I Prospered and this is my reward for my obedience. And look at the power and might I have now. I'm gonna be the next kettle a omer all the spoil for myself. People will fear my name. Abram will become just like the other Kings full of himself full of his great name Oblivious to his dependence upon God and then shrinking away and pulling back from what God had promised to him.
Which could only be received by faith. And so what does Abram do in this gateway of witness? Does he cave in and become a witness against God or does he? Capitalize as he build upon his faith and become a witness for God.
Verse 22 and 23. Abram said to the king of Sodom. I've raised my hand to the Lord God Most High. I Can't resist saying this. Abram has not called God the Most High God.
El Elyon.
Until Melchizedek blesses him in the name of El Elyon so Melchizedek's Interaction with Abram has made him like steel before the temptation of the king of Sodom. I Raised my hand to the Lord God Most High the possessor of heaven and earth.
You have this cart of gold and silver and goods and flocks. I Raise a vow against the one who possesses the heaven and the earth because he made it. I Will not take anything that is yours. Lest you should say I have made Abram rich.
I Don't want your blessing king of Sodom. I don't want your goods. I don't want to be stained by it. I Have a covenant and a reward from the God who made heaven and earth who possesses the heavens and the earth.
I won't take a thread from you. He says I've raised my hand to the Lord God Most High in Hebrew. It's just if I take that's all it is if I take nothing else if I take and The translators understand that's actually a negative meaning.
I will not take and they translate it that way. I will take nothing but in Hebrew, it's just I will take full stop. Because it's part of what we call an elliptical formula. It's almost like if I take may the Lord deal with me.
May that may the Lord bring it upon me. If I take I will surely not take. I have raised my hand to the Lord God Most High. He's witnessing from the deepest part of his faith from the deepest part of his life.
I Don't look upon these things as you do king of Sodom. I don't look upon my life and my possessions as you do king of Sodom. I Raised my hand to the God Most High. I won't give you the opportunity to leverage to say I've done this for you.
He's saying I want you to know why I've done this. I want you to know who I serve. It's not you. It's not even myself. There's only one king. I serve only one king. I'm bound to only one king who provides for me.
Only one king who can reward me. If God won't give me something I don't want it. I Learned that lesson the hard way in Egypt if it doesn't come from God to me from the God that I've committed my life to.
That I've determined I will accept anything that comes from his hand whether good or bad for all things work together for the good of Those who love him and so I don't want your threads your sandal straps your gold chains.
How different Abram has become from Genesis 12? How different the difference of having encountered the Lord God? He stands before a king and he's completely unmoved. He's completely unimpressed. He borders on offense.
I won't take a thread from you. There's not one little token thing a little souvenir of this time. I saved your skin by a night ambush. Not a postcard not a coffee mug. Not a teaspoon not even a thread.
Proverbs 27 21 says. The crucible is for silver the furnace for gold. A man is tested by the praise accorded him. Success is the greatest test of God's people. This year we've seen a number of people who once confessed the name of the Lord fall down for that very reason.
Haven't we. They didn't understand what Abram understood here in this interaction with the king of Sodom. Abram wouldn't be stained By the worldliness of plunder. He didn't want it to be vague about his relationship with the Sodomites and the king of Sodom.
He saw what happened when Lot pitches tent towards Sodom and end up in Sodom and he wanted nothing to do with that trajectory.
He says.
Some of my 318 men they had to eat. We count that as spoil whatever they ate. We're not gonna pay it back. As for these other Amorites, whatever they want divided among them. I won't take a thread from you.
Abram knows it's impossible to accept this kind of gift without somehow being indebted or obligated to the giver. He never wants the king of Sodom to say Hey Abram, remember all those goods I gave to you.
Why don't you move a little bit closer? Why don't we ally together? Why don't we maybe stretch some land out? Maybe build a campaign. Why don't we cooperate? Why don't we build together? Which is always the great temptation of Israel, isn't it?
We get to Ezra Nehemiah when they're rebuilding the foundations of that city. Rebuilding the temple and the nation's around them. Let us build with you. Let us build with you. Nehemiah is just like Abram.
You can have nothing to do with us. We won't take a thread sandal strap a shovel a pickaxe. We don't want an ounce of your labor. It comes from God or it doesn't come at all. That's Abram's faith. This is what Paul says remember in 1st Corinthians 6.
The Corinthians are trying to understand the nature of Liberty in Christ. And they have this view that Liberty is all-inclusive all-encompassing. If Christ is mine, then all is mine. I'm free and and I cannot be under the guilt of anything.
And so it seems that Paul is actually quoting something they said and then responding to it. We have examples of this in many of his letters. Sometimes those quotes are not translated as quotes, but it makes sense when we look at the context.
This is what Paul says in 1st Corinthians 6 12. All things are lawful for me. Just pause. Do you really think Paul would ever say all things are lawful for me? Anything is lawful for me. Is that how Paul normally deals with matters of holiness in the law?
Even in 1st Corinthians even the next chapter. What about this radical call for light not to be with darkness? For the temple of God not to be polluted by idols. All things are lawful for you is intermarriage lawful for you.
He's just said hand a man over to Satan. I've already judged him is all things lawful for this man. No, clearly he's quoting the Corinthians. So radical is this gospel of God's free grace so free from you now.
There is no condemnation in Christ Jesus. All things are lawful for you. And Paul says all things are lawful for me, but I will not be subject to anything. I.
To do.
That's a very Abrahamic insight. It's lawful for me to take this plunder, but I'm not gonna be a slave to it. And so I won't take a threat of it. All things are lawful, but I won't be enslaved. I Serve the Lord Christ.
The only power to which I yield my life is his power. That's what Abraham is demonstrating here. Brothers and sisters do we demonstrate that. Do we witness that do we begin? Beholding the Lord who is the possessor of heaven and earth and from that.
Understand how our whole life is held in that balance. Nothing nothing in this life is truly ever mine. Everything in this life is truly always.
His.
Do I live like that is true. Do I look at my life like that is true. Do I look at the world around me like that is true? Do I know that there is nothing in this life that can satisfy my heart, but God?
There's no amount of goods no amount of spoil. No amount of plunder that can satisfy my life. The things that feel empty in my life. Unless it's from God by God God himself. That I'm in this world not to be of this world, but to use this world for righteousness and so like Abram in many ways.
Brothers and sisters there's going to be times in our lives and you have to know these times as An individual when you raise your hand and you say I'm not gonna touch anything you have to offer. Not a thread.
I Know where that path goes. Lot thought he could straddle. He thought he could have some of the world. Some of the worldliness some of the worldly ways of living.
Thought he could.
Be partially baptized in Christ and partially baptized into the filth of the world, but still always have some reason some escape. And so he straddles and what happens when you straddle you never veer toward righteousness.
When you straddle you never drift toward holiness. When you straddle you always head into Sodom. And so he's just towards Sodom and then he's in Sodom and when you're in Sodom you get carted away with Sodom.
Israel never followed this example. First Samuel 15, this is just an amazing parallel, I think. In first Samuel 15, you remember Saul has been anointed as king over Israel and And God commands Saul. Now there's this warfare against the Amalekites who we read about in this chapter already the Amalekites and God has put them under the ban in this language of conquest there to be completely exterminated.
This is holy war.
God puts them under the ban. As an aside and we won't go into this as Christians, please don't shy away from that, you know. There's only two things that people who don't actually know the Bible know about the Bible.
One is you cannot judge me because Jesus said something like don't judge unless you be judged. The second is didn't God kill like command his people to kill out whole peoples like genocide. That's it.
That's what the world around you knows about the Bible. You can't judge me and God didn't he command genocide. Never shy away from.
That.
Run to that argument and run it all the way down. Yes, he did and he was right to do that. He was holy. What's your problem with that? Why is that so offensive to you? Let's talk about that. I want to know why that offends you.
Why does that grip you? Does that seem unjust to you? You know that there's not going to be this little selective genocide from a conquest at one time in Israel. So, you know that there's a judgment that's going to affect everything and everyone it's coming.
And.
Even then you won't say that that's unjust. Never shy away from. This is what I'm saying. Don't fumble for an answer. Or say Oh God didn't have anything to do with it. God commanded it. He had everything to do with it run to it.
God puts the Amalekites and their paganism and their debauchery and abominable behavior under the ban. Israel you're to be a light to the nations. You are the seed through which all the nations of the earth will be blessed.
You're going to give them the Savior who will give them the gospel and yet you must also be a picture of my holiness Destroying that which is unholy of of my Savior being the risen conquering Son. And so go put them under the band spare nothing.
This is what he does. And so Saul attacks the Amalekites. We read in 1st Samuel 15 verse 8. He took Agag the king of the Amalekites.
Alive, uh-oh.
The king wasn't supposed to be taken alive. He utterly destroyed all the people with the edge of the sword, okay. But Saul and the people spared Agag and the best of the sheep The oxen the fatlings the lambs everything that was good.
They were unwilling to utterly destroy them. But everything despised was destroyed. So the word of the Lord came to Samuel saying I Greatly regret I repent. Remember that from Genesis 6 I Repent that I set up Saul as king.
He's turned back from following me. He's not performed my commandment. And it grieved Samuel and he cried out to the Lord all night.
So.
When Samuel arose early in the morning to meet Saul it was told to Samuel saying Saul went to Carmel and indeed he set up a monument for himself and he has gone on around passed by gone down to Gilgal and Samuel went to Saul and Saul said to him blessed are you of the Lord?
I perform the commandment of the Lord. But Samuel said what then is this bleeding of sheep in my ears? The commandment of the Lord was to not spare anything. The Amalekites were a picture of sin. Israelites a picture of holiness and sin must utterly be Destroyed.
God cannot dwell with sin. Saul says I've performed that commandment and Samuel says why do I hear sheep then? Why do I hear goats and lambs? It's all said they brought them from the Amalekites. The people spared notice.
He doesn't take responsibility. The people spared the best of the sheep and the oxen. To sacrifice to the Lord your God, this is gonna well, we'll make we'll make it a good thing. Well, we'll give God the sacrifice of these things.
Yeah, we spared him, but we'll sacrifice him. Samuel said to Saul be quiet. Don't you miss the days when the Prophet was higher than the king. Be quiet in a rude way. This is shut up. God is speaking to you now through me.
You have here just in 1st Samuel 15 verse 16 a theology of the magistrate the prophet. The pulpit as it were always being higher than the throne as it was in the days of the English Reformation. When Hugh Latimer preached down to King Edward be quiet.
I will tell you what the Lord has said. When you were little in your own eyes. Were you not head of the tribes of Israel's when you follow the Lord because you were so humble so vulnerable so afraid. And you had to only depend upon the Lord.
Were you then not head over all the tribes of Israel. Did not the Lord anoint you king over Israel now? The Lord sent you on a mission and said go utterly destroy the sinners the Amalekites. Fight against them until they're consumed.
Why then did you not obey the voice of the Lord? Why did you swoop down on the spoil? You see Saul didn't keep in mind what Abram knew all along. He wasn't gonna swoop down on the spoil. He wasn't gonna play with fire.
He wasn't gonna flirt with becoming big at his own eyes and therefore Departing from the Lord what a Samuel go on to say to Saul obedience is better than sacrifice. So how is Abram a witness as we come to a close?
How is Abram a witness? I? Think in three ways in three ways. Abram is a witness first. Abram is a witness to the king of Sodom. Because of how he rejects the offer. Because of what he says what he declares.
I I'm not gonna touch a thread from you because of that. He's become a witness to the king of Sodom. Now to be fair to the king of Sodom. He's willing to lose all the possessions. He just wants those people back.
You can't be a king without people to rule over return the people to me and Abram says no you can have it all. I restore it all to you except what these three brothers want. So notice again this presentation of Christ.
Abram is the deliverer. He's the deliverer by right. He should take it all. The one that he delivered He should get nothing. He's the deliverer. He took the risk. He fought the battle he won and Yet everything that he won he gives.
What a picture of Christ our Deliverer who lived that perfectly righteous life that we could not live. We couldn't begin to live it from the moment. We were conceived we blew it. And yet step by step breath by breath day by day and night by night.
He became obedient to the law. He was the suffering servant born under the law. He lived a life we could never live. He he was victorious. He was perfect. He was the beloved son. Everything he did was righteous and holy and as Romans 9 said he's the eternally blessed one.
He's victorious. All is his now. He wins it all.
What does he do?
He gets slaughtered on the cross and everything he won he gives freely to his people. He gives gifts. Ephesians 4 says to men. Though our deliverer is worthy of all he gives all to his people. He makes us co-heirs joint heirs together with him.
He becomes a witness to Sodom in this way a Presentation of Christ to the king of Sodom he becomes quite literally a blessing to the nation. Remember how in Genesis 12 God had promised him a land and A seed and air and then also that through him all of the families of the earth would be blessed.
In other words, the Gentiles would receive salvation through the seed that would come from Abraham. And then we got to chapter 13 and it seemed like God came to him and renewed that promise. But it's like where the nation's go.
He said I'm gonna give you this land to your to your seed forever. And we're like, yeah, but what about the blessing to the earth? Maybe that's fallen out of view now. Look at it here. Abram is literally blessing the nation's here.
You're the you're the nation of Sodom. I'm going to bless you. I'm gonna deliver you and I'm gonna give you all of your goods and people. Abram is beginning to fulfill his call his promise to be a blessing to the nations.
It was by faith that he understood this testimony this witness. He was witnessing to these three brothers. He was witnessing to the king of Sodom. By faith, he knew that the blessing of God is what mattered not the goods not the victory not the pride.
It was the blessing of God. It was the covenant of God. That's what he was after. That's what he was pursuing God. What do you call a blessing? That's the only blessing I want. I don't care what the world calls a blessing.
I don't care what they say. I should achieve in this life or what a good happy life looks like. Does that look like having a split home and kids being raised by Caesar? Is that the blessing of the world?
I don't want it Lord. What do you call a blessing? What sacrifices will I have to make to do that? Do I have to gather up my home to fight combat spiritual warfare if that's what it takes to receive the blessing?
I'll do it trusting in you. The king of Sodom must have been tickled pink. Don't you think? To have his caravan loaded with all of his goods and have a train of all of his people. Gleefully bouncing back to Sodom this turned out better than I thought.
A few days ago. I was running up the hills and I had lost everything because of this guy Abram. I got everything back. This is a good guy. Blessed be Abram. And in all that happiness and splendor He goes back to Sodom and in chapter 19 We know what's going to happen to Sodom and all those people and all of those goods.
Abram is living by faith. He's a witness to the God Most High and he's a witness to the king of Sodom and Secondly, he's a witness to Lot. He's a witness to Lot. There should be something inside of us screaming Lot.
Don't go back to Sodom. Look what Sodom has done to you. It's taken everything from you. If it weren't for Abram you you'd have been carted off your family separated raped killed.
Why would you go back?
What prosperity is there? You know chased after your goods in that little cart? Look at what God has done. Look how he made me a deliverer. Look how I'm trusting in him. He's given me promises. Hasn't he already shown this?
Don't you remember Egypt? He delivered me then Lot. Look at it now. I even helped me deliver you. Why would you go back to Sodom? But he goes back to Sodom. He goes back and guess what? A lot of people were killed in this battle.
There's a lot of positions to fill. He probably had a pretty lucrative position under this king. We find him in chapter 19 right in the front gate a place where the elite would be. He's perhaps an official in the city.
He goes back to Sodom and he doubles down. Abram is a witness to a lot. Lot is this picture of someone for whom the world has become all-important. There's no sense of transcendence and so he leaves the land and he leaves the deliverer and He leaves the reward of the deliverer and the blessedness of the deliverer.
To go.
Hold on and grasp at things that are going to be burnt up from him in a few chapters. That is a picture of everyone outside of Christ today. They have left the the reward the blessedness of the one who says come to me and I will never cast you out.
Come to me. Salvation is by my right hand fullness evermore. I come that my joy might be in you and that joy might be full. Come come with me dwell with me. Follow me. There's this little card of gold and it's heading back towards Sodom and maybe we can have it for a few years.
Then it gets burnt up as Sodom gets obliterated. That is a picture of the world. Abram is a witness to lot. Everything that he had collected and guarded was taken from him in a moment and it didn't actually sever those.
Those tentacles of affection in his heart for the world. And you've seen people like that. Their lives have been ravaged by the consequences of sins drugs drinking sex.
Pornography.
Family disputes conflicts brokenness and you would think that would somehow sever them from this this worldliness. That's fleshliness and turn them to the Lord. And it doesn't. All that Sodom has to offer is Inevitable doom that's it.
That's it. Temporary splendor. Inevitable doom in the land of promise. There's not immediate splendor. There's buds of it, but they're farmed for you. But living by faith you understand the reward is Everlasting and so Abram lastly brothers and sisters becomes a witness to us.
He's a witness to the king of Sodom. He's a witness to lot. He's a witness to us of what living by faith looks like. I Love what our confession says about the nature of faith saving faith. This is just so beautiful.
By faith a Christian believes to be true whatever is revealed in the word. Abram counted as true what God said to him and God counted that to him as righteousness the authority of God himself speaking in it and Therefore he acts differently upon that word yielding obedience to the command.
Trembling at the threat. Embracing the promise of God for this life. And that which is to come what a beautiful definition of faith. Notice this threefold reaction of faith to the Word of God. It yields obedience to the commands.
Why do you call me Lord? You don't obey what I command.
Faith obeys.
Commands. It trembles at the threats. Do you notice that? They're sometimes very sensitive Christians and we look down on them as though they have weak faith because they hear of of the the threat of God or Or the reality of his judgment and they begin to tremble a little.
They fear very shaken by it and you know. We're all kind of oblivious to it. Oh, yeah, the judgment of God. Isn't that gonna be horrible? Oh, yes Jesus says woe to you. Sodom and Gomorrah would have repented long by now if they had heard the message and we go.
Oh, yeah, that's gonna be awful on that day. And then they they're shaken by it they leave their head shanging and we might go oh. They have weak faith. No, no, they have a stronger faith than you. They tremble at the threat.
Faith trembles at the threats of God. He was R .C. Sproul who trying to talk about the horror of hell and he said is that it is at least fire. Is it some you know metaphor? It's at least fire. At least faith trembles at the threat of God.
Our God is a consuming fire, but notice also it embraces. It's not the fear of drawing away it's that fear of hide me under your wing. Be my refuge my rock. It embraces the promise of God, but not just for this life also for the life to come.
Abram is a witness to us brothers and sisters. Because he doesn't want the rewards of Sodom he wants the reward of God. He doesn't want to dwell near Sodom. He wants to dwell in the land that God has given him.
In other words He's only wanting to walk according to the promise of God and when temptations come to pull him off of that course or tempt him Away from it. He rejects them. He won't take a thread from them.
And another thing are we living by that same faith in that same context. Notice. This is not happening as days roll on end and seasons go from seasons in this unchanging bliss. This is happening when the world is at chaos.
Abrams trying to follow the Lord and the world is literally being turned upside down all around him. Five kingdoms against four kingdoms. Armies villages people fleeing refugees is it's chaos and This is where Abram is called to trust the Lord.
That's a witness to us.
Our little lives our little efforts our little spiritual gains and hopes and and Sanctifications are actually the whole point. We would know nothing of the wars and the kings and the kingdoms and the vassals and the suzerains.
Unless God wanted to give us a picture of the faith and the patience of Abram. That's the whole reason we have Genesis 14. It's to present the faith of Abram in the faithfulness of God, which is Christ Jesus.
So translate that to us brothers and sisters. What matters the headlines? The wars and the rumors of wars. The Kings and how they convulse the earth. The Babel builders and how we live under their shadow.
Is that actually the centerfold of history? Or is it what the Lord's doing in me and through me? Building my faith. Helping me trust in the promise. Discipling the next generation worshipping looking walking with him.
Letting others know about the words. Is that not what we're meant to understand from chapter 14? We have a tendency To look at the little things in our lives in a spiritual way and we feel down about it.
Because we look at the headlines. We look at the chaos. We look at the warfare and we feel superfluous. We don't amount to anything and what we know to be true doesn't seem to amount to anything. And so we despair.
Learn from Abram not to do that. These kings of Mesopotamia thought they were the rulers the movers and shakers of the earth. They were just pawns. God wasn't working through them. He was working in spite of them.
He was working through this humble man named Abram. We have the Titans of our day and they think they're the movers and the shakers. They're the CEOs and the CEOs and the cultural elite. And they pass the policies and laws and they they block accounts and they really Think that they're running things.
They're just pawns. We're the centerpiece. We're the body of Christ on the earth. We're the bride. Learn from Abram. Learn from Abrams witness. The things that you and I do from day to day are the things that matter to God.
Your obedience matters to God.
God's reward.
Shapes and fashions our life. God's promise that is beheld by faith and not by sight. Conforms our life not what we see taking place around us no matter how convulsive it is. We live by faith in the Son of God.
And so again Abram witnesses to us and he shows us as always the reality of someone. There's only two ways to live. There's only two ways to live. You can live like lot be bent towards Sodom and even when Sodom takes you for a turn and strips everything from you.
You still go back to it. You go back to it.
Like a dog returning to its vomit or you live like Abram. And Though you cannot see God's reward by faith. You behold it and you embrace it and As God's Spirit gives you that faith you you yield obedience to his commands and you tremble at his threats and You embrace his promises for this life in the life to come.
Let's pray father. Thank you for your word apart from your word Lord. Where would we be? Who would we be?
Thank you Lord that.
You've given us your word not just by the hearing of our ears, but by the hearing of our hearts. That as the word goes out Lord from voice box to ear canal.
You.
By your power can implant it into our hearts. You by your spirit will speak it into our lives. Your word Lord pierces every division even even to the joint in the marrow of the soul. Might we hear that word this morning Lord.
Show us those ways that we're veering towards Sodom being deceived again by the spoil. Let us have the faith of Abram That sees the the bondage of the world for what it truly is that lives a life of transcendent faith Lord not Above the world as though outside of it, but in the world for it.
Help us to understand what this looks like in our lives Lord. Help us to be humble and not depend on the arm of flesh. I pray if there's one in this room Lord. Who's been living in Sondham living in that captivity might they know?
The deliverer. Even now. Save them by your gospel from their sins in that inevitable doom. Let not the world put us in that that boiling water like frogs. Let us Lord be reminded of what faith is as we yield obedience to your command.
Let us also tremble at your threats. Let us not take the teeth out of them Lord those warnings that keep us on straight and narrow that Purify our fear in our heart unite our hearts to fear your name.
But Lord as we do that draw so close. Embrace us with the love of your son. The one who laid his own life down to deliver us and break the bonds that hold us captive. The one Lord who though he is worthy of all gives all to us.
That everything he is in you we are in him. This is the gospel you praise you and glorify you for it in his name. We pray. Amen.